Miller column: Cardinals’ Jordan is player of the week

Friday

Oct 12, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Jacksonville’s Mario was certainly super Friday night.

Chris Miller-Prep Sports Writer

Jacksonville’s Mario was certainly super Friday night.

Junior Mario Jordan rushed for 165 yards and 3 touchdowns on 22 carries to lead the Cardinals to a 23-21 victory at West Craven, a win that pushed Jacksonville to 6-2 overall and 2-1 in the Coastal 3-A Conference.

As a result of his efforts that helped the Cardinals record their most wins since going 6-6 in 2007, Jordan is The Daily News football player of the week.

It’s an honor Jordan deserved, Jacksonville coach Beau Williams said.

“All season Mario has been a very tough player who has worked hard every day in practice,” Williams said. “Now he’s starting to reap some of the rewards.”

Jordan scored all three of his touchdowns in a decisive third quarter that saw Jacksonville outscore West Craven 20-0. His touchdowns came on runs of 37, 10 and 5 yards.

But as if Jordan’s performance wasn’t big enough, his play was very much needed after the Cardinals’ Jermaine Linton suffered an injury early against the Eagles.

“Mario came on this week and stepped up when Jermaine got hurt,” Williams said. “He had a bulk of the carries and he played well. He ran to his landmarks and he was able to outrun some people.”

Williams hopes for the same tonight when the Cardinals visit defending state 3-A champion Havelock (7-1, 4-0). Jordan now has 315 yards rushing on 60 carries, averaging 5.2 yards per run.

He has proven to be threat in the backfield for Jacksonville, which has struggled at times moving the ball on the ground in recent seasons.

“I think he (Jordan) is starting to understand (his role) and he’s started to get going,” Williams said. “I think he will have a good remainder of the year.”

Now for the panel

Sports page designer Mike Boaz is still in first place in The Daily News high school football forecasting panel after he went 6-2 last week to improve to 56-10.

Second place is Kinston Free Press managing editor Bryan Hanks, who went 4-4 and moved to 52-14, followed by me at in third after I went 6-2 to improve to 51-15.